For once, Delhi Daredevils bowlers minimised their batsmen's task. But the batsmen could not deliver and let Kolkata Knight Riders snap its two-match losing sequence with a 17-run triumph in a match of the IPL at the Ferozeshah Kotla, here on Thursday.
A target of 149, built around Man-of-the-Match Manoj Tiwary's unbeaten 61, looked clearly gettable, given the fact that Daredevils gains its strength from its batsmen. But on Thursday evening, it was the turn of Daredevils' batsmen to let the bowlers down.
Daredevils lost it rather than KKR winning it.
Openers Virender Sehwag and David Warner left it to the middle-order. A steady rise in required run-rate and the growing desperation of every incoming batsman led to Daredevils' downfall. The triumph lifted KKR to the second position in the points table.
Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla benefited the most from the desperate measures adopted by the Daredevils middle-order. He removed Irfan Pathan and then scalped James Hopes and Naman Ojha in the 15th over to break the Daredevils' backbone before the late-order committed hara-kiri, with an agile Brett Lee effecting two run-outs in the penultimate over.
After Hopes, the duo of Yogesh Nagar and Vengopala Rao held out some hopes for the host, but there was no denying KKR.
Reasonable total
On a day when Daredevils bowled its best to restrict an unusually circumspect KKR, Tiwary's unbeaten half-century, including three cleanly struck sixes and two boundaries, was instrumental in KKR putting up a reasonable total on a pitch that assisted bounce.
With the exception of Tiwary, and Ryan ten Doeschate, who came up with some late blows, none of the KKR batsmen looked in their element. The innings lacked big partnerships and the lack of urgency, for the better part of the innings, encouraged bowlers to bowl to their plans.
Tiwary held the innings together, kept one end going, and also rotated the strike in phases. However, the late-charge that was expected from a well-set Tiwary never came.
From the start, Srivats Goswami and later Tiwary looked impressive by turns, but the frequency of big hits remained low. With Irfan bowling his best spell so far in the competition, Morne Morkel's off-day did not hurt the Daredevils much.
Irfan was duly rewarded with the prized wicket of Jacques Kallis. The South African, who struggled to get strike, hit two boundaries off compatriot Morkel before missing an intended glance off Irfan.
Goswami, too, targeted Morkel, but fell to the first delivery from Ajit Agarkar, flicking into the hands of wicketkeeper Naman Ojha.
Gambhir struggles
Skipper Gautam Gambhir struggled to get going and so did Yusuf Pathan. The duo watched, by turns, as Tiwary batted with scant respect to the bowlers.
Both Gambhir and Yusuf departed while attempting to send the ball over the ropes. Yusuf and Eoin Morgan fell to Umesh Yadav off successive deliveries, but there was no stopping Tiwary.
Kolkata Knight Riders: J. Kallis b Irfan 11 (11b, 2x4) , S. Goswami c Ojha b Agarkar 22 (20b, 4x4) , G. Gambhir c Rao b Hopes 18 (19b, 2x4) , M. Tiwary (not out) 61 (47b, 2x4, 3x6) , Yusuf Pathan c Irfan b Yadav 5 (8b) , E. Morgan c Ojha b Yadav 0 (1b) , R. ten Doeschate c Irfan b M. Morkel 19 (12b, 2x4, 1x6) , B. Lee (run out) 1 (1b) , L. Balaji (not out) 3 (1b) , Extras (lb-2, w-6) 8, Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs) 148.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-42, 3-82, 4-105, 5-105, 6-140, 7-145.
Delhi Daredevils bowling: Irfan 4-0-16-1, M. Morkel 4-0-42-1, Yadav 4-0-29-2, Agarkar 4-0-34-1, Hopes 4-0-25-1.
Delhi Daredevils: D. Warner b Balaji 2 (6b) , V. Sehwag c Balaji b Unadkat 34 (23b, 5x4, 1x6) , J. Hopes c Tiwary b Abdulla 25 (30b, 1x4, 1x6) , Irfan Pathan c ten Doeschate 9 (12b, 1x6) , T. Birt c (sub) Hasan b Yusuf 8 (11b) . Venugopala Rao (run out) 19 (18b, 2x4) , N. Ojha c Lee b Abdulla 1 (2b) , Y. Nagar c Goswami b Balaji 19 (12b, 2x6) , A. Agarkar (run out) 0 (0b) , M. Morkel (not out) 6 (5b, 1x4) , U. Yadav (not out) 1 (1b) , Extras (b-3, w-4) 7, Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs) 131.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-43, 3-61, 4-75, 5-83, 6-85, 7-123, 8-123, 9-130.
Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Lee 4-0-24-0, Balaji 4-0-38-2, Unadkat 4-0-24-1, Abdulla 4-0-25-3, Kallis 2-0-11-0, Yusuf 2-0-6-1.
Man of the match: Manoj Tiwary.
